Category: International Relations

Burma has blamed Bangladesh for delaying the start of a repatriation process for hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees, saying it feared Dhaka could be stalling until it receives multi-million dollars of international aid money.

The United Nations has appointed Norwegian Knut Ostby to serve as interim UN resident coordinator in Burma, replacing Renata Lok-Dessallien and serving in the role “until further notice,” according to a UN statement released Tuesday.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke on Thursday with Burma’s army chief and expressed concern over reported atrocities against Rohingya Muslims in Arakan State, the US State Department said in a statement.

The State Department is considering formally declaring the crackdown on Burma’s Rohingya Muslims to be ethnic cleansing, US officials said on Tuesday, as lawmakers called for sanctions against the Southeast Asian country’s military.

Burma and Bangladesh on Tuesday agreed to cooperate on the repatriation of Rohingya refugees and took steps to boost border security as relations between the neighbours have been strained by the continuing flow of refugees into Bangladesh.

The United States is taking steps and considering a range of further actions over Burma’s treatment of its Rohingya Muslim minority, including targeted sanctions under its Global Magnitsky law, the State Department said on Monday.

Shareholder activists will speak with Chevron Corporation next week to request that the energy giant use its influence with the government of Burma to press for a resolution of ethnic violence that has led to a refugee crisis.

The European Union deals a blow to what had been increasingly warm ties between the bloc and Burma’s military, saying it will suspend any invitations to the Tatmadaw’s top brass and “review all practical defence cooperation,” as well as maintaining an existing arms embargo.

Pope Francis will meet Burma’s top Buddhist monks, its military generals and civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in November when he visits that country and Bangladesh, both caught up in a crisis over the Rohingya Muslim minority.

The European Union and the United States are considering targeted sanctions against Burmese military leaders over an offensive that has driven more than 500,000 Rohingya Muslims out of the country, officials familiar with the discussions say.

Two weeks since the Burmese government pledged to begin a process for the return of hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees who have fled to Bangladesh, questions about the practicality of a mass repatriation loom large.

Britain’s Prince Charles will tour southeast Asia and India later this month, but the heir to the throne will not visit Burma, after a spate of violence and allegations that authorities are carrying out ethnic cleansing.

Bangladesh opens talks with neighbouring Burma on Monday with the aim of securing the return home of more than half a million Rohingya Muslim refugees from Burma, most of whom have arrived since late August.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Thursday called on countries to suspend providing weapons to Burma over violence against Rohingya Muslims until the military puts sufficient accountability measures in place.

International aid groups in Burma have urged the government to allow free access to Arakan State, where an army offensive has sent 480,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh but hundreds of thousands remain cut off from food, shelter and medical care.

The Tatmadaw lashed out at the British government on Wednesday after the latter suspended military-to-military engagement in the wake of a counter-insurgency campaign by security forces in Arakan State that the UN has described as “ethnic cleansing” of Rohingya Muslims there.

UN investigators have started collecting testimony from fleeing Rohingya Muslims pointing to human rights violations by Burma’s military and security forces, the head of the fact-finding mission said on Tuesday.

A lawyer for two Burmese journalists detained in Bangladesh while reporting on the influx of thousands of Rohingya Muslims from Burma said on Monday he had been denied access to them amid concern over their well-being.

The US Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said on Thursday he had spoken with Aung San Suu Kyi and that she said she was working to get aid to the Muslim areas in Arakan State that were affected by violence.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the UN Security Council on Wednesday urged Burmese authorities to end violence against the majority-Buddhist country’s Rohingya Muslims that has forced some 400,000 people to flee to Bangladesh.

Burma’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, facing outrage over ethnic violence that has forced about 370,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh, will not attend the upcoming UN General Assembly because of the crisis, her office said on Wednesday.

Despite the deportation of Pakistani journalists Aamir Liaquat Husain and Waqar Zaka late last week, a Burmese immigration official insists that the two men are welcome to return to Burma — provided that their travel itineraries are properly laid out.